This invention relates generally to electronic commerce, and, more particularly, to the processing, modifying, analyzing, and storing of purchaser data to support functions that are valuable to product identification, selection, and purchase for the customer, the merchant, and the supply chain.
The retail industry's drive for efficiency is on going. Purchasers favor merchants with lowest prices. Merchants compete to provide lowest prices. In this competition unit stores are growing ever-larger floor and shelf space and carrying more stock. Managing very large stock, floor and shelf spaces is becoming difficult. Purchasers need assistance to manage the volume and frequency of product and sales information; navigate in large retail spaces to find specific products; provide electronic payment for product purchases.
Merchants, suppliers and purchasers (customers) are beginning to work together. Merchants and suppliers now provide information through the Internet so purchasers can shop from home. Merchants and suppliers are providing barcode coupons through the Internet. Purchasers are beginning to use portable barcode scanner devices supplied by merchants to select and process products in the retail space. Merchants have deployed kiosks in the retail space with electronic displays and keyboards to display information about products to purchasers. Paper catalogs now appear with barcodes that direct a web browser to a product information page on the Internet. Electronic devices are now available to help a purchaser manage money and automate the payment function of the checkout process.
Financial transactions require encryption to keep sensitive data secure. Communications encryption is accomplished today using the Public Key Infrastructure or PKI. This method is safe and secure as long as the key is safe and secure. If someone steals a laptop computer, the key is stored in the computer and it is compromised. In the prior art, the public key is offloaded from the laptop computer to a smartcard. The smartcard must be inserted to make a secure connection. However the memory of the laptop computer is still unprotected leaving stored data susceptible to theft.
Examples of systems in place today to accommodate purchasers are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,045 to Peter Lee et al that describes a mobile client system using a cellphone interconnected with a mobile computing device; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,693 that describes merchant communication to customers. Both of these devices place mobile computer power in the hands of the purchaser. These devices advance purchaser or customer automation by providing access to product data in the retail space. But neither is designed to be ubiquitously integrated into a merchants retail automation system. Both of these devices are insufficient to support all the functions needed by the merchant, supplier and purchaser (customer).
For a better understanding of the present invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and detailed description and its scope will be pointed out in the appended claims.